A Post - Constitution Society

Today I went to Half Price Books looking for something to read, as I often do on the week-end. Like you, I have many interests and never know what I'll end up buying and taking home where I escape from the cruel world with a stack of books and diet Coke.
Anyway, this trip I was gripped by biographies, buying one on Dolly Madison, John Hancock, and a third book about how Lincoln changed the Presidency.
My thinking- are we off course in America? Have we re-created America to the our own detriment and lost what made us great? Or perhaps have we re-interpreted democracy in a way that will prove advantageous and ideologically stand the test of time? I wonder ...
Could I challenge everyone to find and read one substantive biography on one of the founders or Presidents who really lived out and interpreted the meaning of democracy in his day?
I fear we've forgotten what freedom is and what the Constitution says.
We have become so diverse that "anything goes" and bills are being passed to help us survive, without thought of America's most fundamental values.
Yes, America has changed and is always changing, but at the same time our foundation stays the same. You can't discount what is historic, internalized core belief; and many men and women have given their lives for their experience and intellectual understanding of AMERICA. Remember, the new must build upon the old, not tear it down!
So, I'm looking for another book now - a good one on the Constitution - what it plainly says and obviously means; and I'm going to read the document (the Constitution) like I read the Bible: for guidance, as a road map that points the way our nation should go. THEN, I'll take a good look at that health care bill or at least a Cliff Notes version. Meanwhile, please read and take to heart your biography. I wish we could discuss them, and what democracy is - and what our inalienable rights are!
Where I stand now on things: In this country, we have a right to opportunity-education and opportunity to excel at a job we prepare for and obtain. Though the current health care bill may improve opportunity for some to receive care, which is positive, I don't get the constitutionality of the basic concept. Do we now live in a post-Constitution society with a new congress of founders?